Page 39 of Better Than Baby

“You write contracts. You can call the shots on this. We don’t want anyone to ever challenge us. If he’s ours, he’s ours…and no one can undo it. I would not survive if a bio parent decided they changed their mind in five years.”

Christ, me either.

Aaron was talking as if a decision had been made on the spot, and I should have stopped him…reminded him that we’d closed that chapter, but I couldn’t do it.

“Agreed,” I choked out.

“I don’t want to see Cassie, I don’t want to take on her pain. I don’t want to feel sorry for her or try to fix her life. That might sound cruel, but I just…can’t.”

“It’s called self-preservation, and it’s okay to feel that way.”

He chewed the side of his thumb thoughtfully and veered in another direction. “We’re going to need double of everything. I’ll go shopping tomorrow and?—”

“Hang on, baby.” I grabbed his wrist before he could jump to his feet. “This isn’t an overnight deal. There are a lot of logistics and legalities to get through…and of course you’re right…we have to meet him.”

Aaron cocked his head curiously. “Are you nervous to meet him?”

“God, yes,” I admitted with a laugh. “Petrified.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Will he like us?”

“He’s eleven months old, so…I think he’ll give us a chance.”

“Maybe, but c’mon, there’s so much we don’t know about babies. Being an uncle or a godfather is easy—you get to return them to their parents at the end of the day. We’d be the parents. Us. And two kids at different stages of babyhood? Geez, I have so many questions. Does one child take away from the other? How do we juggle family and careers? Will we ever sleep? Having a baby was all we’ve talked about for months—no, years. But an insta-family is a whole other thing. Are we up for this?”

Aaron’s smile was serene, patient, and loving. “We are. Me and you together…we can handle anything, Matty.”

I believed him.

We leaned in, side by side, reveling in the enormity of the moment and the possible changes ahead of us. Life might never be the same again.

fourteen

The mountainof legalese involved in an adoption could intimidate even the most seasoned lawyer. But not one who specialized in contracts and had a vested interest in creating an airtight, impossible-to-penetrate, binding agreement. I spent long hours fussing with concise and foolproof terminology and conferring with some of the most respected legal minds in my field.

And Curt.

“This is solid, man. It should be your final draft.”

“You think?”

“For sure. I’ve seen six of these already. How many more iterations do you need before you’re satisfied?” Curt scrolled through the final pages and pushed my laptop across my desk.

“I need it to be perfect. I had Hughes and Kelleford review the paper work too, and I went through it for the umpteenth time last night. I can’t think of anything else to add.”

“There’snothingleft to add,” Curt huffed, softening his snark with an empathetic smile. “It’s a done deal.”

We hadn’t wanted to share the news about the adoption until we had more information, but we made a couple of exceptions, like Curt and Jack, and Peter and Jay. We needed the support offriends who could be sounding boards and cheerleaders, ready with a “You got this” over a beer or a glass of wine at the end of yet another stressful day.

Our parents and other friends checked in regularly to find out how Lena was doing and ask if there were any newborn updates. We needed that too…a sweet reminder that good things were on the horizon no matter what else was going on in our lives.

But Curt was right. Legally, this could be a done deal as soon as all parties signed on the dotted lines.

I closed my laptop with a nod. “Yeah, I think it’s as complete as can be.”

Curt straightened his legs and sat back in the chair. “When do you meet him?”